Sunday, March 26, 2017 - Loss of Vision - "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye."

Some
time ago, a young man came to see me to pour out his heart. He admitted he was
a workaholic, because of which he was increasingly distancing himself from his
wife and two children. His marriage was on the verge of breaking up, since he
could not find time to spend with his family. He was caught in a vicious
circle. He worked hard in order to provide for his family and the harder he
worked and the more time he spent in the office, the further was he moving away
from his family.

As
he poured his heart out, I simply listened. His job had become his obsession.
He wanted to give his wife and children things he had never had as a child and
this effort to gain all things for his family became an enemy of the persons he
loved most. He finally looked up at me and exclaimed, “I’ve lost sight of
everything that matters most!”

The
fox says something similar to the Prince in The
Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery: “And now here is my secret, a
very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is
essential is invisible to the eye.” The young man realized that he had lost his
vision, the heart vision. He had not lost his external sight or vision, but the
inner vision, the heart vision, which enables one to see clearly. He left my
room with a promise to set his priorities right and thanked me for listening.

The
loss of vision, which the young man experienced, is similar to the one
experienced by both Samuel in the first reading of today and Pharisees in the
Gospel text. In the case of Samuel, the reason for the loss vision is due to
mistaken perception and judging by outward appearances alone. However, God
makes it clear to him that he judges not by the external but looks at the
heart. In the case of the Pharisees, the loss of vision was caused by their set
opinions and understanding. They wanted to follow the law as thoroughly as they
could, but did not realize that they had mixed it up with their interpretation
and preconceived ideas and thus had shut the door to any kind of revelation
that God was constantly making in Jesus through his Spirit.

They
were so sure of everything – that God did not work on the Sabbath, that Moses
was God’s only spokesperson, that anyone born blind and anyone who broke the
Sabbath had to be a sinner, that God did
not work through sinners, that God did not work on sinners and that furthermore
no one could teach them anything. In this context, it must be noted that John
makes abundantly clear in this text that physical illness is not the effect of
sin. Rather sin here is connected with spiritual blindness and anyone who
rejects the true light who is Jesus is guilty of sin and so is spiritually
blind. This is an even more dangerous blindness than the physical one.

The
man born physically blind comes to both physical sight and spiritual sight in
his being able to see and recognize Jesus as the one who is sent. Through
opposition and persecution the blind man moves from a confession of “the man
Jesus,” to “prophet,” to “one from God” and finally to a confession of Jesus as
the Son of Man and the Lord.

The
second reading of today reminds the Ephesians and us, that like the man in the
Gospel who represents all of us, we were also blind and stumbling in darkness, but
now we live in the light of Christ and his Good News, and that light is seen in
the way we behave. In the way we relate with other people in “complete goodness
and right living and truth”. Our lives are to have a transparency where there
is no darkness, no hidden behavior which we would be ashamed to reveal to
others.

So
we must think about our darkness, our blindness. Of course, acknowledging our
own spiritual blindness can be embarrassing, painful, and threatening. To
confess our own groping darkness and howling demons within, our frustrations,
fears, and failures, unnerves us. Such a confession may be unsettling. We may
be also anxious of what others might say, think or do.

Tradition,
jealousy or legalism, blinded the religious leaders and prevented them from
seeing the obvious. What blinds us to the truths that we should be seeing?
Regardless of what it is, Jesus offers to remove blindness and show us the
light.

We
have been “enlightened” through baptism and are commissioned to confess and
witness to our faith. Imitating the journey of the man who finally recognized
Jesus, we should progress to an inner enlightenment, so that we can confess the
crucified one as the Son of Man, who, when lifted up, will draw all things to
himself.

About Me

There are four maxims I try to live by. The first is to ALWAYS have CHOICES about everything. The more choices I have, the less the chances of my being disappointed.
The Second is that I try to see my REWARD in the doing of the action itself. I will expect nothing from anyone in return and even expect the very ones I have helped to be ungrateful. It does not matter. I do not mind.
The third is that every stage in my life I try to KNOW where my authority ends. This saves a lot of bother. I am not the General Manager of the Universe. I do what I have to do and leave the rest to God.
The fourth is a readiness to face the consequences of my action. When I make a gaffe I am willing to rectify it and apologize. However, if it cannot be rectified I am ready to face the penalty.